Okay, here is chapter 14, as promised. I like this version a lot better than what it had originally been. Nothing really changed, I just added a lot more description and while I'll admit I didn't really go through the whole thing, I am quite pleased with what I did and wanted to get it posted before I go to work. So here it is. I hope you all like it, and please don't forget to review 3 Love you all!

Chapter 14

By the time Summer made her way back to the dorms, everyone else was in bed. She snuck in, closing the door behind her quietly being careful not to wake anyone. She really didn't feel like explaining where she had been all day. After the whole thing with Michael, Sirius had taken her to the Room of Requirement where they sat and talked about everything under the sun. It had been obvious to Summer that Sirius was avoiding anything that had to do with Robyn, and for this Summer was grateful.

Summer wasn't even sure what all they had talked about. They went from one conversation to another with such ease. She couldn't recall a single awkward silence but for the one when they first got in the room. For a good five minutes, they had sat there, neither knowing what to say. Then Sirius asked if she had started on her Defense Against the Dark Arts essay. Somehow, it escalated from there.

The time passed and both were surprised to find that it was already nine-thirty. The walk back to the Common Room was a little quieter but not awkward, per se. It was a nice silence: one that allowed Summer to think about the day's events and clear her head.

Kicking her shoes under the bed, Summer removed her cloak, climbed into bed, and fell asleep within seconds. She hadn't even realized she was this tired until her head hit the pillow.

"And where were you last night?"

A rather unpleasant voice brought Summer to consciousness. She opened her eyes to find Robyn standing at the foot of her bed, sneering at her.

Summer froze. What should she say? She couldn't tell Robyn she had been with Sirius. Well, she could…but she didn't want to. She knew that telling Robyn would result in her friend assuming things had happened that weren't necessarily true. Of course an obvious to this would be to just tell Robyn what they had been doing. However, her time with Sirius was something special; she didn't want Robyn to mock it because Robyn would surely find it ridiculous that Summer time with Sirius talking rather than taking advantage of their time alone.

"I was at the Library," Summer lied, the words leaving her mouth before they had fully formed in her mind. "I needed to study."

"Oh," Robyn said in a tone that suggested that she couldn't fathom why anyone would set foot in a library.

Nevertheless, it got her to leave the girl alone. Summer let out a sigh of relief as Robyn turned and walked away. Pushing the cover from her body, she stood from the bed and stretched.

"You must've been out pretty late." Startled, Summer glanced over to see the Head Girl watching her with curiosity. "What time did you get in?"

"Ten." Panic set in again as Summer realized that Lily was sure to know that the Library closed long before ten.

"Curfew is ten," Lily informed her. Summer noticed something in the girls' eyes, something kind and understanding. The same somethingthat told Summer her secret was safe with Lily. She would eternally be grateful and had to resist the urge to thank her roommate. "Next time just try to be in before then, okay?"

Summer nodded timidly. Catching Lily's eye, she mouthed 'Thank you.'

Lily shook her head in a Don't-worry-about-it kind of way.

"She was in by ten, Miss Prude," Robyn spat scathingly. "Therefore, you can't tell her what to do!"

Even though it would seem that her intentions were honorable, Summer immediately knew that Robyn had ulterior motives to defending her. Summer really didn't want an argument to break out and figured she could try and inhibit it. "Robyn, it's fine. Just let it be."

"No," Robyn continued. "Lily has no right to tell you what to do."

"Neither do you," Summer almost said aloud but caught herself just in time. She did, however, mumble it under breath. Something only Lily caught.

"I wasn't telling her what to do, Robyn," Lily defended herself. She knew that Summer arguing wouldn't do any good and the only way to possibly stop Robyn would be to deal with her herself. "And even if I was, I am Head Girl and have the authority to make sure that students are in their beds when they are supposed to be."

"Yeah? Well you can take that authority and shove it up your-"

"Robyn, leave it be." The three girls looked over to see Faith emerging from the bathroom, drying her hair with a towel. "Lily was just doing her job."

"Right. Sorry, I forget part of her job was acting like she's better than everyone else." Robyn shot a smirk at Lily.

Lily, however, was much too mature to take the bait. Instead she pretended not to hear her and proceeded to the bathroom. This only annoyed Robyn more and she stormed over to her dresser in a huff. Faith and Summer exchanged a look of understanding, which was interrupted by a rather loud snore emitted from Carmen's bed. The two girls both giggled but Summer noticed that Robyn was staring at the sleeping girl as if the snore had been a personal insult.

Ten minutes later, Summer was walking across the Common Room, heading for the portrait hole when she sensed someone fall into step with her. She glanced over to see a tall, lean figure.

"How're you feeling today?" Sirius asked.

"I'm okay," Summer answered, a stowaway smile crept upon her face; after the near argument this morning it was nice to see a friend who wouldn't start drama of the cat-fight persuasion. "Thanks for last night. It was nice having someone to talk to."

"Yeah, I enjoyed it too," Sirius agreed as they walked out the portrait hole.

Summer felt her smile fade slightly, a sense of doubt overcoming her. Where this feeling was coming from, however, she couldn't quite pinpoint. "Sirius, you didn't tell anyone about what you saw yesterday, did you?" Summer blurted out suddenly, surprising herself by answering her own question.

Sirius didn't look offended, as she had half-expected; instead he merely shook his head. "No, I didn't. It's not my place to tell anyone."

"Okay…I didn't either. Tell anyone, that is," Summer clarified. "Do you think I should?"

Sirius gave her a helpless shrug, wishing with everything in him that he could offer more support and advice. "I don't know. That's up to you. Do you want to tell people?"

Summer was silent for a few seconds. "I don't know. I mean, it's not like anything happened. He only kissed me. I don't want people to fuss about it. It's really not a big deal." Sirius could see that she was clearly trying to convince herself of the words she had just spoken.

"Well, just do what you feel is right," was really the only thing Sirius could think of telling her. Then, after a moment's thought, he added, "If you do tell anyone, it should be Robyn though. It was her ex after all."

Summer let out a dry laugh. She took quick surveillance of the corridor and was more than happy to note that they were alone. She guessed that everyone else was already at the Great Hall. The two had gotten a bit of a late start, after all. Her mind snapped back to the conversation at hand before adding, rather solemnly "Robyn will probably be the last person I'll ever tell. She'll ask me why I didn't go for it."

Sirius felt a fire heat up in his stomach. "What kind of friend is she if she's more concerned about you not wanting to kiss a guy then the fact that you were attacked?" Having some of the most loyal friends in the world, Sirius couldn't fathom one of his mates not caring about his wellbeing. Let alone, chastising him for not going along with something he didn't want to do.

"I wasn't attacked!" Summer asserted, immediately regretting raising her voice at him. Sirius was only trying to help, after all. She felt the shame rising up in her cheeks. She had to resist the urge to drop her eyes to the floor. After a moment's hesitation, she added sheepishly, "Look, that's just how Robyn is. She can't help it."

"Yeah, you can't blame a dog for being a dog."

Summer felt bad about the giggle that slipped from her lips. This was her best friend he was talking about. Then again, when had Robyn ever acted like a best friend to her? Summer's eyes drifted to the floor. After a few seconds, Sirius' voice broke into her thoughts.

"Do you think maybe you should tell Dumbledore?" he asked reluctantly, almost as if he was afraid of doing so.

Summer glanced up at him, she hesitated for a second. "I don't know, should I?" she asked. "I mean, it's not like he really did anything, and it's not like we can prove it. Dumbledore's not the type to just prosecute someone without evidence. It'll be our word against his and, in all honesty, I'm not really sure it'll be worth all the trouble. It really was just a kiss."

Sirius nodded. "And that was just a thought."

"Thank you," Summer remarked appreciatively, biting her lower lip, not sure what to say next.

"So, where's Robyn? Don't you two normally walk down to breakfast together?" Sirius asked, partially to change the subject from Michael and partially because he could think of nothing else to say.

"Oh, when I woke up she was ready to go and I was waiting for Lily to get done in the bathroom, so she left without me."

"Oh," Sirius replied. "Wow, that was kind of mean of her, wasn't it?"

Summer shrugged. "She's not very patient, and besides I didn't really want to deal with her questions or constant badgering." She was trying to make it sound like it was no big deal for her own sake more than Sirius'. Then it dawned on her for the first time that Sirius wasn't with his usual friends with whom he was usually attached at the hip. "What about you? Where's the rest of your lot?"

Sirius smiled. "I told them to go ahead. I wanted to walk with you, make sure you were okay."

Summer was speechless; it was a small gesture but it made her heart ache. She knew that none of her other "friends" would ever do that for her. No one cared if she was all right, especially not Robyn. If you had a problem, you dealt with it yourself. You didn't even bother whining to your friends as they would tell you to get over it. Summer smiled at him shyly. Before she could stop herself, she threw her arms around his neck, pulling him into a tight hug. She immediately felt his arms around her waist.

She really didn't know what to say, or how to express her gratitude. How could she tell him that that was possibly the greatest thing anyone had ever done for her. That he had come at a time when she had all but given up on the kindness of people. She wasn't even sure there were words to describe it all, so she settled with, "You're a great friend, Sirius," she whispered in his ear. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Sirius said as they pulled away from the hug. Summer didn't know why, but she knew that somehow Sirius knew that she was grateful, and that by waiting for her, he had showed her something she had never experienced before. "So, shall we continue to breakfast, I'm starving."

"Yeah, of course," Summer said, smiling. "I'm pretty hungry too."

A few minutes later, they arrived in the Great Hall, which was filled to maximum capacity as was the norm for breakfast. Summer walked with Sirius until she reached her group of friends. She stopped hesitantly, glancing at the group. Sirius, who had continued on, halted and turned to her upon noticing her pause. He took the two steps back to her.

"You can sit with us," he whispered to her, taking the grimace on her face to mean that the last thing she wanted to do was endure Robyn.

Summer tore her eyes away from her friends, who had yet to pay any attention to her presence. "Are you sure?"

Sirius nodded. "If I wasn't sure I wouldn't have offered." With that, the two continued their walking again.

Summer glanced back to notice Robyn glaring at her and leaning in to whisper to another girl, who also glanced up at Summer. She felt another pair of eyes on her and peered over to see Michael sneering at her. She visibly tensed. Sirius took notice and followed her gaze. He glared at the other group before putting his hand protectively on Summer's back.

"It'll be okay," he reassured as they came upon his group of friends a mere second later. "Guys," he said, catching the attention of the others. "Summer's going to be sitting with us today. I hope that's okay." Without waiting for approval of his friends, he motioned for Summer to sit down, which she did tentatively. Once she seemed settled and Sirius was convinced she wasn't going to jump up and run away, he took his seat next to her.

"Yeah, that's fine," Lily said, giving Summer a warm, welcoming smile. While the others seemed to stare at the brunette as if wondering what she was doing here, though no one said a word.

"Eat," Sirius demanded upon noticing that Summer was just sitting in her seat awkwardly, not having touched a single piece of food. Summer smiled slightly at his concern before picking up her plate and piling food on it as the others slowly went back to talking amongst themselves.

Summer felt weird being here. Though it wasn't much different than sitting with her other friends; she mainly ate in silence and listened to the conversations around her. However, one main difference was the nature of the conversations themselves. While with her friends, she sat and endured constant bad-mouthing of different people. She was always hearing about who's skirt was too short, who was wearing too much make-up, who was going out with a boy that was way out of her league.

Here, though, it was different. This lot had better things to do other than bash other people. She heard playbacks from the latest Quidditch match, talk of homework and weekend plans. Not a single negative word was mentioned about anyone. In fact, other people were only mentioned in passing.

Summer had to admit it was a nice change, sitting here, where no one criticized her for putting ketchup on her eggs, or told her that she shouldn't eat that second piece of bacon as she was bordering tubbiness already. Surprisingly, Summer found that she didn't miss sitting with her friends. She was shocked out of her trance when she heard James speak to her.

"So, Summer, what's going on with you and Sirius, are you together again?" he asked bluntly.

"James!" Lily said, slapping him in the chest as she glared at him.

"What?" James asked, eying the redhead, curiously. Since when had she become so protective of Summer? "It's just a question. I'm curious."

"If the girl wants to sit here, she can do so without having to answer any of your questions that pertain to her business," Lily hissed.

"No, Lily, it's okay. I don't mind," Summer insisted, her heart swelling with graciousness for the second time that morning, before glancing at James. "No, Sirius and I aren't back together. I just needed a break from Robyn and Sirius was nice enough to let me sit with you lot. I really hope no one minds."

"No, not at all," Faith said. "I don't blame you for needing a break from her."

"I do," Carmen said somewhat harshly, earning a glare from both Sirius and Lily, which she ignored before adding, "I mean, you act just like her. You've never been anything but a bitch to the three of us."

"Carmen," Lily sighed through gritted teeth in a resigned tone.

"She's right," Summer said, ducking her head as shame overtook her, again for the second time that morning. Jeeze, when did she become so emotional? It's like being with friends with Robyn had shut off her feelings. "I have been rude to you girls, and I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that, you've never done anything wrong to me. I was just trying to fit in with Robyn, and that's not an excuse, but I have seen the error of my ways. That's gotta count for something, right?" She forced herself to meet Carmen's chocolate colored eyes as she spoke.

"Sure, whatever," the girl said before turning to Kevin and continuing her conversation with him.

"Sorry about that," Lily apologized, glancing at Summer after shooting Carmen a glare. Of course, she hadn't expected a much different reaction from her friend. Carmen wasn't one to forgive easily and certainly wasn't one to bite her tongue easily. "She's just a little weary, we all are, but we'll give you a second chance. Everyone deserves second chances."

"Thanks," Sumer said, once again feeling a pang at their kindness. "And I really am sorry for the way I've treated you guys in the past."

Lily nodded.

"Any friend of Sirius' is a friend of ours," James chimed in, causing Lily to turn in his direction. She frowned slightly, not at his words but at the mess on his face.

"James, you have something…" she said, drifting off as she reached up and wiped a bit of gravy off the side of his mouth. It was only after she wiped her finger off on the napkin that she noticed everyone, including James, staring at her, somewhat shocked. "What?" she asked, clearly not seeing the problem. James had gravy on his face and it had been easier to wipe it off herself rather than try to explain to him where it was.

The others all gave her a knowing smile before going back to their conversations. Lily merely shrugged and went back to eating. She didn't understand why everyone had to make such a big deal about every little interaction between her and the dark haired boy. Couldn't they all see that the two were just friends instead of looking for deeper meaning in everything they did?